Another thread asking where to move from London

[spinningcompass]

Apologies for starting yet another thread asking for advice on where to move (I have read many of them!), but it seems people are happy to contribute and the advice is always helpful.

DH and I (early 40s, no kids) currently live in an unfashionable part of East London. For some time we’ve been thinking about moving out of London to get more space (house and green) and enjoy a less gritty and more relaxed pace of life.

Beyond knowing we definitely want to move out of London, we feel a bit overwhelmed - we have no idea where to start looking! Neither of us are Londoners by birth, but our families are quite spread out so there is no obvious location there. DH works from home, but I will need to commute into London (Canary Wharf) once or twice a week, so walking distance (or a short drive) to a train station is important.

Our wishlist is below - we realise we’ll have to compromise.

• Market town / large village with a few shops and a nice pub
• Within 1.5 hours travel time of London (ideally walkable to a station)
• Within a short walk (ideally) or cycle/drive of nice countryside
• Liberal and/or accepting of newcomers.
• Budget of £550k for a 3 bed house (ideally period/character)

DH is of South Asian heritage and I’m concerned about uprooting us from what is a hugely multicultural area and landing somewhere beautiful but with attitudes from the 1970s.

So far we’ve been wondering about North Essex or the South Downs, but I suspect we can’t afford much in the latter, and a commute into Victoria and on to Canary Wharf wouldn’t be my first choice.

We’d welcome any recommendations of places to investigate.

Leigh on sea Essex. Seaside town less than and hour into Iondon easily

I would suggest Chelmsford and surrounding areas

Saffron Walden. It has the prettiest town square, it's not particularly multi cultural but is accepting of outsiders. Also, the green spaces around the town centre like The Common and Bridge End Gardens are both within 5 minutes walk of the town square. There's a small market there twice a week and the train from Audley End gets you into Liverpool Street in about an hour or so. I miss it, and The Old English Gentlemen on Gold Street, just down from the surgery.

Bishops Stortford is well worth a look - on the train line between Cambridge, Stansted Airport and London, so trains to Liverpool Street and Stratford via Tottenham Hale. Ticks all your boxes and that would be a good budget for a nice 3 bed within walking distance of the station. It’s a reasonably diverse town, so I would sincerely hope you wouldn’t need to worry about standing out. Countryside is mostly flat with lots of fields, woods and country pubs.

If you prefer hillier countryside I’d look in the East Sussex and NW Kent areas on lines going into London Bridge. The countryside there is truly gorgeous but I have no idea about house prices!

Oxted - it's only 40 minutes to London Bridge and it's surrounded by lovely countryside.

Guildford/Farncombe/Godalming - 40 mins or so to Waterloo

Dorking - lovely small town, great pubs, 50 mins to Waterloo

Reigate - very similar to Dorking, trains to London Bridge

Dorking is surrounded by gorgeous countryside - the view from Box Hill is stunning. You can get quite a lot for your money: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108233342#/?channel=RES_BUY

Oxted: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/97015352#/?channel=RES_BUY

Godalming: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118774538#/?channel=RES_BUY

Godalming: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116392328#/media?channel=RES_BUY&id=media0&ref=floorPlanPage

Wow, thank you all for your recommendations! Lots of suggestions here we’d not have thought of, and plenty of research for us to do. Thank you especially to whoever mentioned Winchester - I’d assumed it would be out our price bracket but it seems not. I really like Saffron Walden, despite the lack of train station, but I haven’t really explored the villages near Chelmsford, so will do that (thanks for the heads up fellow former unfashionable east Londoner!)

I’ve spent the past 20 years moving in a 3 mile radius in east london so it’s slightly mind blowing to think about a world outside an E postcode. You don’t know how helpful all this is - thank you!

Definitely go east, Reading, Stroud, Brighton etc for Canary Wharf is mad when there are plenty of suitable places with an easy commute. Anywhere with trains going through Stratford would suit, including Chelmsford as already mentioned, Brentwood, Billericay, Rayleigh, etc. Or Leigh on Sea and connect to the tube at West Ham.

@sarahb083

Oxted - it's only 40 minutes to London Bridge and it's surrounded by lovely countryside.

Guildford/Farncombe/Godalming - 40 mins or so to Waterloo

Dorking - lovely small town, great pubs, 50 mins to Waterloo

Reigate - very similar to Dorking, trains to London Bridge

All of the above. Plus Winchester.

But the budget will be very difficult.

You would get more in Kent.

Budget might be tight but Alresford is lovely. On the edge of South Downs National Park and 8 miles from Winchester.

Horsell, Woking ticks all your boxes.

Southend has 2 train lines. One into Liverpool St and the other into Fenchurch St.

So any of the towns on the route would be less than an hour into Canary Wharf.

I was thinking about Paddington...is it the furthest out, most inconvenient terminus? It's even quite a walk to the West End if you happen to work there. Shame because a lot of the places which come into Pad are really nice and quite fast journey times e.g Kemble in the Cotswolds 1hr 15.

We have just moved to Esher after years abroad and we love it. Good schools, fast train links into London, loads of open green space and great neighboring towns with things to do.
Take a look at Whereshome, you put in your requirements and it recommends towns. It was a god send for us.

@spinningcompass It's true there is no railway station in Saffron Walsen, it was closed in the 1960s. The station still exists as appartments, and the ticketmaster's house is now The Railway Arms, a community pub.

Audley End Station is about 20 minutes by bicycle and is on the main line between Cambridge and Liverpool St.

Ramsgate. The most popular town to move to from London during the pandemic, apparently!

Property Market Index report

Fab period properties, lovely beaches, loads of pubs and restaurants, thriving cultural / arts scene. And an hour to Stratford International on the fast train, or a slower train direct to London Bridge/Waterloo East.